Buying a Japanese Wii U may have been a mistake

[bluejay]

I just acquired a complete in box Japanese Wii U, premium set in black. And apparently it was a mistake. 
 

I didn’t know that the Wii U modding scene was a bit of a train wreck; I’d only heard good things about it before. Neither did I know that the system was language locked to Japanese. And I can barely read Japanese.

 

After hearing that Haxchi requires a paid DS VC game, Mocha isn’t very convenient to use, and FailST isn’t in a proper usable state yet, I’m kind of stuck as to what to do now. Apparently vWii can be more conveniently hacked once the Wii U itself is hacked, or you can use a Wii game to hack it. Problem is, my Wii U isn’t hacked and I don’t have any Japanese Wii games. I used letterbomb to hack my regular Wii; and apparently it doesn’t work with vWii. 
 

 

So, uh, what do I do now?

Edited July 19, 2021 by bluejay

[Steven Pendleton]

Yeah, the language settings on the Wii U, DS, and 3DS (and probably others except the Switch) are determined by the system's region. It's also region locked, of course.

[RetroSonicHero]

You can do a lot with a modded Wii U, but it's got a bit of a skill curve in terms of research/background knowledge required beforehand.

I can imagine that you'd probably have a fairly easy time finding a cheapo Japanese Wii game on Ebay or something (the game itself doesn't matter in terms of modding, right?).  The Wii was infamous for a lot of shovelware, so there should be plenty of bargain binners on the web.

 

With that said, it always sucks to learn that you need to buy MORE stuff after already buying something else with the intention of being able to use it soon.  Perhaps there's another option?  I can't really say; I don't know that much about this sorta thing.

Edited July 19, 2021 by RetroSonicHero

[bluejay]

For now, I’m gonna attempt to install Mocha CFW, and see if I can mod vWii through that. 
 

You need a specific game out of a list of around 10 games to hack the thing. Each game has a different method to working its way around the security of the system, so yeah, you can’t just use any game.

 

If FailST releases sometime soon and turns out to be capable of doing something about this language mess and has something good towards vWii modding, I think the best alternative would just be to sell this Wii U and acquire a North American system. Of course, that would be something that I wouldn’t consider until all else fails. 

[RetroSonicHero]

Yeah, honestly I've never understood why languages are sometimes locked out of consoles depending on what region it's from.  Maybe to discourage importing?  Either way it seems fruitless to me in the grand scheme of things.

[bluejay]

I’ve installed Mocha CFW and WUP Installer, and hacked vWii with USB Loader GX and patched IOS80. I also transferred all my game saves from my Wii to vWii. 
 

vWii is as good as I had hoped it to be. Despite the Japanese menu, it now plays my American games just fine. I also installed DOSBOX for shits and giggles and attempted to run Duke 3D, which for some reason wouldn’t run. 
 

WUP installer is working fine, as long as I use NAND. USB installing is finicky and the only time it succeeded the system complained about a malfunctioning storage device. I’m using a USB SD card adapter with a 512gb Samsung EVO Plus micro SD card. And yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s a legit card, passed all tests I threw at it. I could buy an external SSD. 

[bluejay]

Now finished a few more things; used Mocha and Spiik and WUP Installer GX to install US region games to run in English. Currently using TeconMoon injector to inject Wii games directly to the Wii U menu so I don't have to go to vWii and HBL and USB Loader GX whenever I want to play Wii games.

 

Anyhoo, thanks to Mocha, HackMii, Spiik, WUP Installer GX, USB Loader GX, Savegames Manager GX, Wii Backup Manager, and Wii VC Injector, it turns out buying a Japanese Wii U wasn't a mistake after all.

Edited July 20, 2021 by bluejay

[Steven Pendleton]

Now you can do all sorts of fun stuff like playing Gamecube games natively over HDMI! You'll have to run them from the SD or some other storage device and I've heard it displays them in 16:9, unfortunately, but perhaps you can set your display to display in 4:3. Worth it just for Rogue Squadron II, which is the single greatest launch title in the history of launch titles. Yes, it's even better than Super Mario World! That one's pretty good too, though.

[bluejay]

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Now you can do all sorts of fun stuff like playing Gamecube games natively over HDMI! You'll have to run them from the SD or some other storage device and I've heard it displays them in 16:9, unfortunately, but perhaps you can set your display to display in 4:3. Worth it just for Rogue Squadron II, which is the single greatest launch title in the history of launch titles. Yes, it's even better than Super Mario World! That one's pretty good too, though.

Yep. There is an option in Wii VC Injector (which is capable of making GC ISOs into virtual console programs that can be run directly from Wii U mode) to force 4:3 mode on whichever display you may be running on. However, I've tested Super Mario Galaxy so far and it black screens. I know people have been experiencing the same issue and came up with workarounds, but still, I'm not sure if I can trust the software 100%.

 

Meanwhile, After 4 years, I finally got the chance to play BotW. And, well, I'm still on the Great Plateau, and the shrines so far are ridiculously easy. I mean, I know they're supposed to be introductory dungeons, but seriously, every other Zelda game is difficult from square one. Kinda stands out.

[Steven Pendleton]

49 minutes ago, bluejay said:

Yep. There is an option in Wii VC Injector (which is capable of making GC ISOs into virtual console programs that can be run directly from Wii U mode) to force 4:3 mode on whichever display you may be running on. However, I've tested Super Mario Galaxy so far and it black screens. I know people have been experiencing the same issue and came up with workarounds, but still, I'm not sure if I can trust the software 100%.

 

Meanwhile, After 4 years, I finally got the chance to play BotW. And, well, I'm still on the Great Plateau, and the shrines so far are ridiculously easy. I mean, I know they're supposed to be introductory dungeons, but seriously, every other Zelda game is difficult from square one. Kinda stands out.

That's interesting. If you're setting Galaxy to 4:3, try running it in 16:9, as I do believe the game natively has a 16:9 mode anyway. Now that I think about it, you can now finally play Wind Waker HD! Enjoy fast sailing and more convenient/easier Triforce-finding.

[bluejay]

1 hour ago, Steven Pendleton said:

That's interesting. If you're setting Galaxy to 4:3, try running it in 16:9, as I do believe the game natively has a 16:9 mode anyway. Now that I think about it, you can now finally play Wind Waker HD! Enjoy fast sailing and more convenient/easier Triforce-finding.

You can select between locking and unlocking 4:3 aspect ratio for each individual game. I only left it on for GC games.

 

Yep, first thing I installed on the thing was WWHD. Unfortunate thing you can't transfer saves (at least, as far as I know) from the GC version; I made it quite far into the game. At least I know I'll make much faster progress this time around.

Edited July 20, 2021 by bluejay

[Austin]

I did get a Japanese system about a year and a half ago as well. Mainly because I'm a sucker for the platform and I wanted a backup controller. Little did I know, apparently the controllers are region locked too? And I was also stuck in the beginning trying to figure out where the language switching option was, only to find that there is none with the Japanese units. So.. yeah. Ugh.

 

My Japanese Wii U basically turned into a MSX box for me, haha. I snapped up quite a few of those VC releases.

 

I looked into the hacking process and ultimately passed on it. Seems like too many hoops to jump through and there is a greater chance of bricking than with other consoles. Maybe I'll revisit the idea down the road when I have more time.

[Steven Pendleton]

11 hours ago, Austin said:

apparently the controllers are region locked too?

I do believe that I heard something like that somewhere, but it's been several years. Is it just the tablet thing or is it stuff like the Pro Controller as well? I might be able to understand if the tablet was region locked, but if the Pro Controller is region locked, that's quite unexpected.

[bluejay]

The gamepad is region locked, pro controllers aren’t. 
 

11 hours ago, Austin said:

I looked into the hacking process and ultimately passed on it. Seems like too many hoops to jump through and there is a greater chance of bricking than with other consoles. Maybe I'll revisit the idea down the road when I have more time.

Wii U hacking is only as dangerous as anything else. As long as you follow the instructions correctly you won’t have any problems. However, there are certain processes where it is extremely important to follow the directions exactly or you are going to brick the system or the vWii. 
 

That being said, it wasn’t much more difficult to hack my Wii U than it was to hack my Wii or 3DS.

[Austin]

On 8/7/2021 at 3:17 AM, bluejay said:

The gamepad is region locked, pro controllers aren’t. 

Yeah, I was mainly referring to the tablet, but that's good to know with the Pro Controllers. I purchased a Dragonquest bundle that came with a bunch of extras, like a Pro Controller, so it's nice knowing I'll be able to use it on my NA console if needed.